SWDnovel Chapter 385
Chapter 385
Chapter 385
Freshman, A-1, Liberto de Gardenia... I didn’t expect him to speak so rudely to a senior from the same Class A.
‘Do you want to get your ass beaten up?’
Liberto seemed taken aback by my sudden outburst, and the temperature in the room dropped even further.
“... Sorry?”
“Are you running your mouth because you want to get your ass beaten up, you little brat?”
This guy was royalty. Heir to a kingdom, no less. He probably never heard such foul language in his life. That’s why he looked visibly flustered, clearly not expecting this.
“Are you insulting me, the legitimate heir of the Gardenia royal family?”
“...”
His words left me momentarily stunned, and I rubbed my face a few times to clear my head. Feeling a bit more composed, I walked over to Liberto, who was glaring at me with youthful defiance.
“Yeah.”
And then...
Smack!
“Ugh!”
I smacked him on the head.
“W-what are you doing...!”
He cried out in shock, falling to the ground and wrapping his hands around his shins.
“I, a commoner, have publicly insulted and smacked the heir of the Gardenia royal family.”
Thud!
“Ugh!”
“So what are you going to do about it, you little punk?”
Smack!
“Ugh!”
The kid, now clutching his side, rolled around on the training ground floor.
“Didn’t you hear that your status doesn’t matter when you’re at the Temple?”
Status was meaningless at the Temple. Everyone was witnessing this firsthand.
The kid, still in disbelief that a senior who claimed to be a commoner would mercilessly beat him, lay sprawled on the ground, stunned.
“Get up, you brat.”
“Y-you’ll regret what you did to me la—”@@@@
“Oh, shut up.”
“Gasp!”
I drew my leg back as if getting ready to kick a ball, and he gasped and curled up.
He was scared. He seemed bewildered by the fact that he was scared and losing his composure in real-time.
“Do you really want to be beaten up like a ragdoll?”
“...”
“Do you want to get beaten up? Hey. Answer.”
“Uh, uh...”
“Answer with yes or no.”
“N-no...” he mumbled in a small, timid voice, and I slowly stepped back.
“There are always those who only understand after getting beaten up. Get up.”
“Ugh...”
“Are you going to get up or not?”
The students, both male and female, who were witnessing a senior calling for an assembly and then beating up a classmate, were frozen in shock. Lucinil, in particular, stared at us with her eyes wide open.
I watched as Liberto got up, glaring at me with his teeth clenched. This kid still hadn’t learned his lesson.
“If you’re confident, hit me.”
“...”
“But I won’t be responsible for what happens next.”
“...”
“Are you going to do it or not? Hurry up and decide.”
He seemed to be seriously contemplating it.
Was he really considering taking me on?
Other students began whispering.
—H-hey, isn’t that senior... that person?
“I should probably talk to the freshmen. Warn them to be especially careful around this senior.”
“It seems like something that... needs to be done.”
In the end, they decided to assemble the freshmen to warn them to handle the explosive material known as Reinhart with care. Even Ellen agreed.
‘No, really, I didn’t intend to hit him...’
In the end, my attempt to have a one-on-one conversation with Lucinil failed in a bizarre way.
***
In the original storyline, the second-year Class A students would have been assembling the freshmen to discipline the arrogant ones, just as they had been disciplined by the current third-years when they were freshmen.
However, the current second-year Class A students had become gentle souls uninterested in such things, and Reinhart, in an attempt to meet Lucinil, had ended up unintentionally taking on that role.
As a result, Harriet and Ellen gathered the first-year freshmen again to spread a different kind of warning. Instead of the stern male senior who first assembled them, a calm and composed female senior and the female senior with braided hair who had just beaten up the ill-tempered male senior appeared.
Even though they didn’t look intimidating, the freshmen were just as tense, having witnessed the earlier scene.
“We’re not here to scold you. After what happened earlier, we wanted to tell you something. I’m Harriet de Saint-Ouen, Number 4 in second-year Class A.”
“Second-year, A-2, Ellen.” Ellen introduced herself briefly.
The two seniors who had come now had a completely different aura. Unlike the previous senior who seemed ready to pounce on any mistake, these two showed no signs of wanting to scold anyone.
And just as someone had recognized Reinhart earlier, there were freshmen who recognized Ellen as well.
“Um... aren’t you Miss Temple?”
Miss Temple.
At those words, even the freshmen seeing Ellen for the first time felt their eyes go wide.
Ellen simply nodded, as if winning the Miss Temple contest was neither a point of pride nor shame.
“Yes.”
And the female freshman who recognized Ellen naturally recognized Harriet too.
“You’re the one from the Open Tournament, right? I saw you! You beat the fifth-year senior!”
“O-oh, uh... really? W-well... I didn’t win, though...” Harriet blushed and stammered, unused to such situations.
“You forfeited, but you didn’t lose!”
While Reinhart, who had won the first-year tournament, was impressive, Harriet had made an even greater impact by winning one of her bouts with Olivia Lanche, a fifth-year, in the Open Tournament. Their match was so intense that it had practically destroyed the arena.
The first-year freshmen began to look at the two in awe. The first senior who had called them to assemble was the winner of the first-year tournament, this calm-looking senior was the Miss Temple winner, and the cute senior with braided hair was the one who had beaten a fifth-year student...
Even within the Royal Class, the second-year students of Class A seemed extraordinary, leading the freshmen to form their own impressions. Lucinil watched the two with interest.
“Ah-ahem, a-anyway. We didn’t gather you here to scold you but to tell you something.”
Harriet cleared her throat a few times, trying to regain her composure, then began speaking to the freshmen.
“The one who came to see you earlier is Reinhart. He’s a troublemaker that even we can’t handle, so don’t provoke him. Especially you.”
Harriet pointed directly at Liberto on the far right.
“Me? Oh... okay.”
“Reinhart went easy on you.”
Even though he felt wronged for being hit, hearing that he’d gotten off lightly was even more frustrating. But Liberto, having seen Reinhart’s actions, realized he had completely misunderstood the Temple.
This was what it was truly like. It was a place where if you flaunted your status, a commoner could easily beat up someone of royal blood, and you just would just have to take it. It was a place with no one to complain to. Even after being hit, seniors would come and tell you that you got off lightly.
Strictly speaking, the Temple wasn’t exactly like that. But how could the freshmen know that Reinhart was just an exceptionally strange case?
They were left with the impression that the Temple, and especially the Royal Class, was inherently like this.
“Be careful in the future. He’s petty and will remember your face.”
Harriet said this without realizing the weight of her words. She was basically saying, “You’ve been marked by Reinhart.” It’s often those who are unaware who speak the harshest.
“Be careful.” Ellen, who had been quietly watching Liberto, added briefly. “You might get hurt if you’re not careful.”
Liberto’s face turned even paler at Miss Temple’s calm advice.
Ellen had said it with genuine concern, warning him not to speak carelessly because there might be dangerous people like Reinhart around. However, to the listener, it didn’t sound like that at all.
In the end, despite saying they weren’t there to scare them, Harriet and Ellen ended up intimidating the freshmen just like Reinhart did. Still, they managed to lighten the atmosphere a little after that. As Harriet talked to each of them about their majors and showed a slightly awkward side, they realized she wasn’t such a scary senior after all.
“Did you skip a grade?”
“Yes, I’m thirteen. I’m majoring in magic,” the silver-haired girl, Lucinil, said with a bright smile, causing Harriet to flinch as if her heart was being squeezed. She almost reached out to pat her head but stopped herself.
“What’s your talent?”
“Destruction magic.”
A talent in Destruction magic... It didn’t match her cute appearance, but talents didn’t necessarily align with looks.
Harriet smiled brightly after hearing Lucinil’s answer. “Magic? Are you interested in the Magic Research Club?”
“The Magic Research Club?”
“Yes! It’s a club within the Royal Class... Actually, that troublemaker from earlier is the president. But he’s not really a bad guy... Once you get to know him, he’s actually a really, really good person.”
Lucinil’s lips curled slightly at those words.
“Ohh... really?”
Unintentionally, Harriet ended up helping Reinhart.